


and all i need is to be struck by your electric love

by radioactivesaltghoul



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, i am never going to get tired of this trope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2020-05-13 07:23:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19246522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radioactivesaltghoul/pseuds/radioactivesaltghoul
Summary: Rey’s supposed to fake-break-up with her fake-boyfriend, but Ben’s been pissing her off more and more lately. What better way to irritate him by showering him in a public proposal that he has to say no to?





	1. baby, you're like lightning in a bottle

**Author's Note:**

> I saw [this tumblr post](https://ao3commentoftheday.tumblr.com/post/185617959165/were-fake-dating-and-im-supposed-to-publicly) and then I couldn't rest until I word-vomited this fic because I am completely unable to resist the fake/pretend relationship trope.

The arrangement Rey had with Ben had been going smoothly up until two weeks ago, when she finally put in her two weeks’ notice at the seedy bar she’d been working at since before she was legally allowed to serve alcohol. (Plutt had never been much for following regulations, and Rey had needed the money to put herself through university.) The agreement was this: Ben and Rey would "date" until she found a permanent job and could quit working at The Junkyard. As much as they both hated it, having a tall, glaring boyfriend around kept some of the regulars at The Junkyard from pawing at Rey. The fact that the whole situation made Ben angrier and angrier was ironically helpful in that the more he thought about it, the harder he glared at the seedy clientele. What Ben got out of it was a way to keep Poe from trying to set him up with literally every other single person he knew.

They'd agreed that it was a temporary thing; Rey didn't need the large, scary, male shadow following her around at her next job, and Ben would tell Poe he was too heartbroken over Rey to even consider dating someone else. Rey was skeptical about the idea that Ben could say a sentence like that with a straight face, but he'd assured her that Poe was sappy enough to buy it. So when she finally got a job offer at Resistance Technologies two weeks ago, she'd told him that they had to get ready to end their fake relationship. "It's just the next phase of the plan for you," she'd said. "You said that this would keep Poe off your case for what, another year or so?"

She hadn't been able to interpret his facial expression when she'd broken the news to him, and ever since then, he'd been...difficult. Not that Ben Solo was a can of laughs to begin with. That was half the reason why he worked so well as a fake boyfriend. But he'd been prickly and distant ever since her announcement and even though Rey knew that it was all part of the game, that their break-up would be more believable if their friends saw that they'd been having issues, it still hurt. Throughout the six months they'd been fake-dating, she'd grown rather attached to him, and she found herself more and more uncomfortable with the idea that he couldn't wait to be rid of her.

Early on, they'd agreed that they would have to have a public breakup, since their relationship was a very public cover for their problems. It had to look authentic, they'd reasoned. And they'd kept the ruse up pretty well, in Rey's opinion. They sat together when they went out with their friends, they bought each other dinner, and they'd even traded a couple of kisses when a distraction was needed. (They'd never discussed it, and Rey would rather die than admit it, but she liked having those rare opportunities, even if the circumstances were all faked. Ben was a great kisser, and she’d spent more time than was probably wise wondering what else he was good at.) Even though it wasn’t as public as the dinners and the kissing, they ended up talking on the phone most nights, just chatting about whatever was on their minds.

So yeah. She was pissed that Ben was being so pissy lately. _He'd_ been the one to insist that their relationship have an expiration date, and now that it was here, he was being so difficult. Which actually made it easy for Rey to figure out the perfect revenge:

An obnoxiously over-the-top public marriage proposal. 

He'd hate it. Honestly, _she_ hated the thought of even touching the concept of a public marriage proposal with a ten-foot pole. She knew it was going to make them both miserable and yet she didn't care, because it was the best way to force a break-up. He couldn't say yes, because then they'd either have to actually get married or figure out an even more over-the-top way to fake their breakup. It was really the perfect revenge; they both hated "that romcom shit," as Ben put it. It was just one of the many reasons why they worked so well as a fake couple.

 

* * *

 

Rey's last day at The Junkyard was well-attended by their friends, who wanted one last chance at discount drinks. (What was Plutt going to do, fire her for giving her friends shitty $2 cocktails?) Ben was present, as always, lurking at the corner of the bar with a drink in his hand. He looked even more gloomy tonight than normal, which was saying something. At one point, Finn attempted to draw him into a conversation, but gave up after a few minutes. Rey wasn't close enough to that end of the bar to hear what they were saying, but from the looks of it, Finn was exacerbated by the whole situation. If Ben was acting as grumpy with Finn as he had been with Rey lately, that was most likely why. Her best friend and fake boyfriend got along pretty well most of the time, which worked out pretty well for her.

Her shift ended a couple of hours before last call—Plutt wasn't exactly in a position to stop her from leaving early—and they all ventured out to another round of drinks at the bar where they preferred to hang out. Ben barely said two words to her as they all piled into Rose's car and drove away from The Junkyard for the last time. Rey couldn't help but breathe an audible sigh of relief as she turned her back on the shitty bar where she'd spent most of the last six years hauling ass to keep herself afloat. "Thank fuck that's over," she murmured.

Ben, who was sitting to her left, was the only one who picked up on that. "Feel better yet?" he asked, his eyes searching her face for a reaction.

As frustrated with him as she was, she couldn't keep from smiling at him. "Loads," she admitted. 

"Are you ready for this?"

There was no need to ask what he meant by _this_. Rey felt her smile falter, then reappear as she thought about what she had planned. "Are you?" she asked. She wasn't sure how she'd expected Ben to respond, but she was still disappointed by the way he looked away and shrugged wordlessly. _Okay, fine,_ she thought. _Whatever, asshole._

 

* * *

 

Maz already had a round of drinks waiting for them when they all arrived at Takodana, ready for everyone to toast to Rey’s new and much improve job situation.

Well, everyone except Ben, who was looking just as grumpy as ever. 

_So that's how it's going to be,_ she thought as she downed her drink in one go. She was probably going to regret that decision in about five minutes, but she delighted in the dramatic flair she got from thunkning the empty glass down on the table. She and Maz exchanged glances, then the bartender nodded. As far as Rey knew, neither she nor Ben had ever explicitly informed Maz in on the true nature of their relationship, but she’d had picked up on it anyway. Rey wasn't sure what the woman's motivations were in going along with her plan, but she wasn't going to turn down help.

Maz paused the music, signaling Rey’s cue to climb on the bar. Takodana hadn’t done karaoke night in a while, but Maz still had the equipment for it. There was a brief moment of panic as Rey wondered if she was making a huge mistake in initiating her fake breakup this way, but it was too late to worry about it now. The wheels were already in motion. “This one’s for you, Ben,” Rey said. A moment later, the bar was filled with music, Rey praying to all the stars above that she didn’t fuck this up. “ _Candy, he’s sweet like candy in my veins/Baby, I’m dying for another taste_ ,” she sang, ignoring the fact that she no doubt looked and sounded like a total asshole for taking over the bar like this. _“Baby, you’re like lightning in a bottle/I can’t let you go now that I’ve got it/And all I need is to be struck by your electric love.”_

By some miracle, she made it through the entire song without getting interrupted, and by the time the song ended, she was panting and sweaty from dancing while serenading her fake boyfriend. She hopped down off of the bar, put the microphone down, and kneeled in front of Ben, pulling a ring out of her pocket. “Ben Solo, will you marry me?” 

Ben gaped, looking as if he'd never seen Rey before. "I—what?"

_Excellent,_ Rey thought. Everything was going according to plan. She’d expected him to be completely flabbergasted by this approach to their fake breakup. "Will you marry me?" she repeated. "I know it's fast, but when you know, you know, right?" 

"Rey," he said lowly, "I thought we were going to—" He cut himself off before he could give the ruse away. Rey may not have cared about being fake broken up with anymore, but it was going to put Ben right back at square one with Poe if he knew about the true nature of their relationship. "Are you serious?" 

"When am I ever not serious, sweetheart?" she asked, giving him a saccharine grin.

Her fake boyfriend, for the first time she'd ever known him, was at a loss for words. He blinked, then seemed to come to a decision. _This is it,_ she thought, her heart fluttering strangely. _This is how it ends._  

"Rey Johnson," he said, smirking. _Uh-oh_. There was nothing good that was going to accompany that expression. "I accept your proposal."


	2. i can't let you go now that i got it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said I wasn't going to do another chapter of this, but I'm so weak for this trope that I couldn't resist.

Ben’s fake relationship with Rey had turned into a game of chicken three months ago when she made a horrendously public marriage proposal instead of breaking up with him as originally planned. Even as he was accepting her proposal, that little voice in the back of his head was screaming _This is a new low, even for you, you idiot._

See, the thing was, Ben’s feelings for Rey weren’t new. He’d probably fucked this up from the start, because he’d always had a bit of a thing for Finn’s best friend, and when she made an offhand comment about the creeps she had to serve at the seedy bar she worked at, he couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. “Tell everyone you have a boyfriend,” he’d told her. “Make a big deal about it. The type of guy that keeps bothering you is also the type who will leave you alone if he thinks you’re in a relationship.”

“I don’t think they’re going to believe me. Some of them spend more time there than I do; they’d notice if I said I had a boyfriend but he never came to have a drink at The Junkyard.”

“I’ll do it.” The words were out of his mouth before he realized he was speaking at all. “Tell them I’m your boyfriend. I can show up once in a while to glare at them.” It wasn’t like she would ever say yes if he asked her out for real. This was going to have to be good enough for Ben.

The look she gave him made him wish the ground would open up and swallow him whole. How was it possible that she could turn tomato red and still look so pretty? “I mean,” he added as the silence stretched on, “We don’t have to date for real. Or forever. Just until you can find a better job. Then we can break up and...” She was still staring at him in silence. “...yeah,” he finished weakly, feeling like he’d made a huge mistake.

It took another moment before Rey could react. “But what would you get out of this?”

_That_ was her reaction? Not, “I can’t believe you’d suggest something so absurd” or “What is _wrong_ with you”? 

Since _I’d get to spend time with you and maybe we could hold hands or something_ was probably not the response she was looking for, Ben scrambled for something that sounded vaguely believable. “Poe Dameron keeps trying to set me up with everyone he knows and he won’t stop, no matter how many times I ask,” he said. “He thinks I’m dating you, he stops trying to set me up.” The sad thing was, it wasn’t a lie. Dameron seemed to thrive on playing matchmaker. The fact that Ben never went for anyone he suggested only made him try harder.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked. “No offence, this doesn’t exactly seem like your thing.”

_Ouch._ “You think I don’t know how to act like someone’s boyfriend?”

“No, not at all!” she replied. “No, I’m sure you—no.” It almost sounded like she’d been about to say something else, but she cut herself off before she could continue that thought. “I just meant, you don’t strike me as the kind to help someone out by pretending to date them.”

Ben shrugged, trying to not show how stung he was by the implication that he’d be a terrible partner. “We both get something out of this,” he said. “And it ends as soon as you get a new job. Finn told me you’ve started looking, now that you’ve only got a semester left.”

That conversation had been nine months ago. After the first time they’d kissed (just for show, of course, a week into their fake relationship, and there had been _plenty_ of “just for show” kisses since then), Ben knew there was no going back for him. The only thing he could do was stick it out until either he or Rey caved on the fake engagement fiasco, and then the whole thing would be over and he could, like, move to the other side of the world to get some space and try to get over her.

The problem was, Rey wasn’t making it any easier for him to leave. At some point they’d fallen into a pattern of talking on the phone every night, which had nothing to do with all the other parts of a fake relationship since it wasn’t like either of them needed to pull out a phone bill to prove how much time they spent talking to each other, and she’d made it pretty damn clear that she considered him a good friend. Emphasis on the _friend._

This had to end, and soon. He’d gone along with the fake engagement thing out of sheer stubbornness and pride that he could take something this far and not break, but his mother had started texting him about wedding planning and he was still upset about the message she’d sent earlier about throwing a party to officially welcome Rey to the family, because it was a sharp reminder that none of this was real.

His phone started buzzing, signaling the start of one of his and Rey’s increasingly lengthy evening phone calls. _Well,_ he thought as he picked up the call, _maybe just one more night._

As usual, Rey began speaking as soon as he picked up. “We should move in together.”

This was the opposite of the conversation he needed to have with her. “We should _what_?”

“Move in together,” she said, sounding far too nonchalant about the idea of sharing living space with him. “We’re engaged. That’s what engaged people do. Right?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Me either, really, but that’s what they all do on TV.”

“Are you really going to reference TV relationships as a blueprint for our fake engagement?”

“Think of how much money we’d save. My lease is up in another month; I need to look for a new place to live anyway.”

It was unclear whether she meant she wanted to rent a two-bedroom apartment so they’d each get their own room, or if she really did expect them to find a one-bedroom apartment together. Ben couldn’t figure out a good way to ask. “I don’t know,” he said.

“Look, you’re always talking about how much you hate your landlord. You told me two weeks ago that you were on the verge of breaking your lease anyway. Why not find a place to live together?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not? We’re already planning a wedding together. Your mother keeps texting me about cake.”

“I’ll tell Leia to stop bothering you.”

“No, that’s not what I—” She sounded frustrated, although Ben wasn’t sure what she had to be frustrated about in this situation. _He_ was the one who was hopelessly in love with his fake fiancee, not her. “Why don’t you want to live with me?”

“I’m a terrible roommate. You don’t want to live with me.”

“Bullshit. You can cook and clean and you’re responsible enough to always pay your rent on time.”

He tried another tactic. “You don’t want to spend all of your free time with me.”

“We already spend most of our free time together, and when we’re not together, we’re on the phone for hours every night.”

“You’d get sick of me within a week.”

“Stop telling me what I want or what I’d do!”

The outburst startled Ben into momentary silence. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I didn’t mean—”

“You spend so much time inside your own head that you don’t even see what’s going on around you half the time,” she continued, not acknowledging his apology. “I _know_ it’s an anxiety thing for you. I get it, trust me.” He did; they’d both talked each other down from a panic attack on more than one occasion. “I proposed to you because I’m petty and I was pissed off that you’d gotten so distant right before I left The Junkyard, and I knew you’d hate being on the receiving end of a public proposal. You could have said no and ended things right then and there. Why didn’t you?”

It wasn’t like it was news that the proposal had been just as real as everything else. So why did it hurt so much to hear her say it? “Same as you, I guess,” he said as frostily as he could manage. “I knew it would piss you off.” _And I wasn’t ready to let you go._

“So why bother keeping this charade up if we’re not actually going to do anything about it? Our friends aren’t stupid, Ben. They know something’s up.”

“I didn’t plan on taking it this far!”

“Well, I didn’t plan on falling in love with you, so I guess we both fucked this up!”

“And I didn’t plan on—wait, _what_?”

He heard a _thump_ , then a “Oh, shit,” that sounded far away from the phone speaker. He guessed that Rey dropped her phone after dropping _that_ bombshell. A moment later, she came back, sounding just as heated as she had before. “I meant what I said.”

“About the apartment, or about—” He couldn’t bring himself to say it, just in case it had been some weird hallucination on his end.

Rey seemed to know what he meant, though. They were good at reading each other like that, even over the phone. “Both,” she said, voice wavering just a little bit. “I fucked this up at some point. It stopped being fake for me ages ago. It just took me a while to notice.” She sighed. “Shit, I really didn’t mean to do this over the phone.”

The way forward was clear to him now. “Come over,” he said, his heart pounding. “Let’s do this in person.”

“Right now?”

“It’s not fake for me, either,” he admitted. “I don’t think it ever has been.”

A pause. “You mean, you—?”

“Come over,” he repeated. “Or I can go over there, it doesn’t matter to me, I just want to see you,” he added, unable to stop himself from babbling now that it was starting to sink in that his feelings weren’t so one-sided after all. “We can talk or look for apartments or do whatever you want.”

“And if I said I wanted to do you?”

His heart actually _stuttered_ in his chest. Ben had thought that only happened in books. “We’ve been doing this whole relationship thing in all the wrong order. We have a lot to catch up on.”

She laughed. “Do we ever. I’ll see you soon. And Ben?”

“Yes?”

“Never tell me I’ll get sick of you again.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I really am done with this fic now.
> 
> come find me on tumblr as [radioactivesaltghoul](https://radioactivesaltghoul.tumblr.com/) and twitter as [r_saltghoul](https://twitter.com/r_saltghoul).

**Author's Note:**

> Rey's karaoke song is [Electric Love by BØRNS](https://youtu.be/RYr96YYEaZY).
> 
> I'm not kidding when I said I word-vomited this. I wrote this in one sitting and have done bare minimum editing on it. Feedback is welcome, here or on [tumblr](https://radioactivesaltghoul.tumblr.com/).
> 
> ~~EDIT: Since I've had a number of people ask: I would love to come back to this fic in the future, but I can't guarantee that I'll have the time do so right now, which is why I'm leaving it as a complete one-shot right now. I'm flattered that so many of you have asked; thank you so much for your support and your kind words! <3~~ I did it, I wrote another chapter.


End file.
